Is there really any point in deploring Robert Ludlum, whose nine novels might as well be called "The Ludlum Formula," instead of "The Scarlatti Inheritance," "The Matarese Circle," and so forth? Should we wail that his violence is excessive, not to say downright implausible? Should we object that his sex scenes are curiously chaste for a writer who seems to be so obsessed with physical contact? Or that his plot developments aren't so much plot developments as signals reminding us of clichés?

In fact, one often wonders why he even bothered to write out a particular scene. Wouldn't it be more economical if he simply provided us with references to a "Standard Dictionary of Ludlum Plot Developments," in which we could look up the entry "The hero ambushed in an elevator" and read: "X leaned to his right—a sudden gesture of fear—then abruptly, without warning...